updated 09:30 am EDT, Fri August 7, 2009

Shatp HDTVs with BD burner

Sharp Japan on Friday announced it has added five new HDTVs as part of its AQUOS DX2 lineup, with all sporting built-in Blu-ray disc recorders that are claimed to fit seven times more recorded content on them than a traditional Blu-ray disc without sacrificing picture quality. The new LCD HDTVs are available in 26-, 32-, 40-, 46- and 52-inch sizes, with the top three models sporting 1080p, 15,000:1 contrast ratios and 3 HDMI inputs, while the 26- and 32-inch models make do with 720p resolution, 7,000:1 contrast ratios and 2 HDMI inputs each.

All of the TVs connect to the Internet thanks to an Ethernet port and support BD-Live, IPTV and Yahoo Japan. A program guide lets users set automatic recordings for the two digital tuners and a terrestrial one. Recordings can be made in the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format and transcoded, with a dual-layer, 50GB Blu-ray disc capable of storing 30 hours of HD video.

Sharp was the first to release an HDTV with an integrated Blu-ray recorder back in May, with the introduction of its 20-inch AQUOS DX. Compared to this original DX HDTV, Sharp has introduced a new and built-in light sensor to adjust brightness levels depending on the ambient light.

The five new AQUOS DX2 TVs will be released on September 10th in Japan, with the 52-inch LC-52DX2 priced at the equivalent of about $5,048, the 46-inch model at $3,993, the 40-inch model at $2,943. The lower-resolution 32-inch model will cost about $2,000, while the 26-inch model will be priced at $1,787. All but the two top-tier models are available in white, red or black. The 52- and 46-inch models lose the red color option.